Hand-held, mobile, and portable electronic devices such as smart and cellular phones, portable gaming, laptops, and electronic tablets are becoming more and more ubiquitous in today's society. In part due to their mobility and hence accessibility, users of such devices are increasingly relying on them to store and maintain personal and business data such as contacts, email, photos, account information, passwords, client, patient, or customer files, and various other important or difficult-to-regenerate information. As those who have ever lost such a device can attest, the cost of the lost device (while often not insignificant) frequently pales in magnitude to the grief the owner suffers as a result of the loss of and/or the inability to access the data or information contained on the lost device.
This problem is often exacerbated by the fact that the return of lost devices to their rightful owners is often not an easy task. Frequently, the lost device is password protected or protected by other means (e.g., biometric sensors or other security measures) that preclude even the best intentioned person from determining who the device should be rightfully returned to. Indeed, common carriers like airlines and the like have reported large quantities of unreturned electronic devices, which they have been unable to trace back to their rightful owners or passengers due to lack of identification information or their inability to access the device because of password or security protection. Some users, perhaps to improve their chances of recovery, provide contact information on the exterior of the electronic device, for example by scribing or placing a sticker on the device that contains the name, company, address and/or telephone number of the user and/or owner. Many users, however, prefer not to do so for reasons of privacy or as an added security precaution to avoid making the device a target for theft, misappropriation, and the like. Moreover, such exteriorly positioned labels are frequently inadvertently damaged, removed, or become unreadable with time.
While conventional protective cases for such devices provide protection from loss of the device as a result of physical damage from the environment or impacts and the like, they do not assist in the return of such valued property to their rightful owners while also overcoming the foregoing privacy and security concerns.
Applicant here recognizes that there is a need in the art for protective cases or enclosures that can assist in the return of the device to its proper custodian (e.g., user or owner or agent thereof) and do so without indiscriminately revealing personal contact information. Applicant has also recognized that there is a need in the art for protective cases or enclosures that are capable of electronically instructing another of the user's electronic devices to perform a specified task or function.